Of communities and things in common

I’ve read two posts in the last few days which have got me thinking about the c-word.

The first was by the always thought-provoking Tessy Britton on collaboration versus conflict in the shaping of community outcomes.  She talks about her own early experience in community activism, and raises the perennial question about who really represents a local community – the Council or the local interest groups.

I for one feel the need to balance and season my own experience in local government with the insight of people like Tessy, who have brought some rigour and discipline to the question of how we make decisions in society.  Tessy’s post offers a great deal of food for thought, including some very scary things about radical activism (the Alinsky conflict-based model; she’s just this morning posted her alternative to Alinsky); it deserves to be read extremely carefully by – well, by anyone with an interest in what is happening outside their own front door.  In fact, stop reading this now, click the link, read her original post, read today’s post, and then come back here.

Right, done that?